This new­ly cre­at­ed senior lead­er­ship role reflects CRANAplus’ strate­gic com­mit­ment to advanc­ing cul­tur­al­ly safe, com­mu­ni­ty-led health­care and sup­port­ing the remote health work­force. The Chief RAN will lead nation­al advo­ca­cy, shape evi­dence-based pol­i­cy, and pro­mote pro­fes­sion­al prac­tice stan­dards that improve health out­comes for peo­ple liv­ing in rur­al, region­al, and remote communities.

Heather brings a wealth of expe­ri­ence in rur­al and remote health­care from grass­roots remote clin­i­cal prac­tice, senior lead­er­ship and nation­al health pol­i­cy. Her dis­tin­guished career includes roles as Chief Nurs­ing and Mid­wifery Offi­cer for the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Depart­ment of Health, Exec­u­tive Man­ag­er Health Work­force at North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Pri­ma­ry Health Net­work, and Direc­tor of Nurs­ing and Mid­wifery for Top End Health Ser­vice. She is also Vice-Pres­i­dent and Board Direc­tor of the Aus­tralian Col­lege of Nurs­ing and last year stepped into the role of Chair­per­son of the Nation­al Rur­al Health Alliance, where she has been a ded­i­cat­ed Board mem­ber since June 2020. Heather also rep­re­sents ACN as a Board Direc­tor for the new­ly formed peer sup­port organ­i­sa­tion, Nurse Mid­wife Health Pro­gram Aus­tralia. She holds a Bach­e­lor of Nurs­ing Sci­ence from Charles Dar­win Uni­ver­si­ty, as well as a Mas­ter of Inter­na­tion­al Health Man­age­ment from the Uni­ver­si­ty of New England. 

A long-stand­ing CRANAplus Mem­ber and Fel­low, Heather joined CRANAplus as Senior Pol­i­cy Advis­er in Decem­ber 2021, where she has been instru­men­tal in strength­en­ing CRANAplus’ advo­ca­cy efforts and col­lab­o­ra­tive rela­tion­ships with peak nurs­ing bod­ies and the broad­er remote health sector.

With her deep under­stand­ing of the unique chal­lenges fac­ing remote area nurs­es and health­care deliv­ery in iso­lat­ed com­mu­ni­ties, Heather will pro­vide strate­gic lead­er­ship to advance CRANAplus’s advo­ca­cy efforts and work­force sup­port and devel­op­ment programs.

“Heather’s appoint­ment marks a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone for CRANAplus and the remote health work­force,” said Dr Ann Aitken PhD, Chair of the CRANAplus Board of Direc­tors. ​“Her career reflects a deep and endur­ing com­mit­ment to remote health­care, and her lead­er­ship will be instru­men­tal in dri­ving work­force reform, pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment, and pol­i­cy change.

“There are sig­nif­i­cant oppor­tu­ni­ties ahead to strength­en sup­port for remote area nurs­es and mid­wives and improve health­care out­comes for our most iso­lat­ed com­mu­ni­ties. This includes advanc­ing scope of prac­tice reforms, enhanc­ing pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment path­ways, and ensur­ing sus­tain­able work­force mod­els that meet the evolv­ing needs of remote area health­care delivery.

“Under Heather’s pol­i­cy lead­er­ship, CRANAplus has recent­ly released its ambi­tious work­force pipeline plan to deliv­er 1,000 nation­al­ly accred­it­ed nurs­es and mid­wives who are pro­fes­sion­al­ly, clin­i­cal­ly, cul­tur­al­ly, and emo­tion­al­ly pre­pared for prac­tice in rur­al and remote Aus­tralia by 2031. This ini­tia­tive, detailed in our 2025 – 26 Pre-Bud­get Sub­mis­sion, calls for a post­grad­u­ate, nation­al­ly recog­nised, rur­al and remote gen­er­al­ist nurs­ing and mid­wifery pro­gram built on the key pil­lars of cul­tur­al and clin­i­cal capability.”

Heather’s appoint­ment builds on her proven track record in rur­al health lead­er­ship and her pas­sion for improv­ing health­care access and out­comes for rur­al, region­al and remote com­mu­ni­ties across Australia.

This role sig­nals a bold new chap­ter for CRANAplus, reflect­ing the organ­i­sa­tion’s com­mit­ment to ele­vat­ing the pro­file and pro­fes­sion­al stand­ing of remote area nurs­ing practice.

Con­tact
Jody Horne
Mar­ket­ing & Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Man­ag­er
(07) 4047 6400
communications@​crana.​org.​au

About CRANAplus

CRANAplus is a grass­roots, not-for-prof­it, mem­ber­ship-based organ­i­sa­tion that was found­ed in 1983. It pro­vides ser­vices, sup­port and oppor­tu­ni­ties to nurs­es, mid­wives and oth­er health pro­fes­sion­als to ensure the deliv­ery of safe, high-qual­i­ty pri­ma­ry health­care to remote and iso­lat­ed areas of Australia.

CRANAplus deliv­ers edu­ca­tion­al cours­es con­tex­tu­alised for the remote and iso­lat­ed set­ting to upskill the remote health work­force. Its Bush Sup­port Line pro­vides free, con­fi­den­tial, 24-hour tele­phone sup­port to mem­bers of this work­force and their families.

CRANAplus also serves its mem­ber­ship by rep­re­sent­ing the work­force and advo­cat­ing for change with­in the remote health sec­tor, pro­vid­ing schol­ar­ships and grants, facil­i­tat­ing remote health employ­ment, and pro­vid­ing career sup­port and advice.